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    EL34Michelle Dean
    3/22/14 9:52am

    That was just a perfect Saturday Morning article. Really well done.

    I'm the first to lament the departure of favorite Gawker contributors; and I'm also the first to say "man, I don't like this new writer at all". (No, I won't name names.)

    If this is an example of "what you're all about", if this is "Michelle's vibe", then I'm damn happy to have you here for my reading pleasure.

    Cheers, and have a great day.

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      CaryGrantLivesEL34
      3/22/14 10:24am

      I'm a fan. I love tearing through metasearches for relevant info, and it's good filler, sure, but it can be a great article with the right person behind the keyboard.

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      NewYorkCynicEL34
      3/22/14 11:07am

      Agreed. It was nice to read a Gawker article written by a newcomer that wasn't sensationalized crap (http://gawker.com/michele-bachma…) or viral youtube videos that CNN "reported" about three days ago.

      Well done Ms. Diaz.

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    MuscatoMichelle Dean
    3/22/14 9:52am

    We want answers, resolution, so quickly these days. It's useful to be reminded that sometimes they don't come.

    Still, miracles - or at least highly statistically improbable things - do happen. I always, when flying, thing of the lucky (I think) girl - Dutch, I believe - who survived the mid-air disintegration of a plane flying across South America. She apparently fluttered to earth on the end of a row of a seats that acted like a large, whirling metallic maple-seed pod, and then she had to make her way for days through the Amazon jungle until she found a village.

    The Malaysian flight is probably gone for good, but still...

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      PowerstuffgirlMuscato
      3/22/14 11:33am

      I don't know about that one, but you have Vesna Vulović-she survived the fall of the plane from 33000 feet: it's a record for survival without a parachute.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAT_Fligh…

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      MuscatoPowerstuffgirl
      3/22/14 12:15pm

      Incredible story. I found the one I was thinking of - Juliane Koepcke, who was German rather than Dutch.

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    NefertittiesMichelle Dean
    3/22/14 9:39am

    Wow—that was the most interesting Gawker article I have read in while. You researched stuff. You educated me. You held my interest. Thanks Michelle. My day is looking up already.

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      camNefertitties
      3/22/14 9:54am

      I love articles where research was involved and details keep my imagination running wild. Great article

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      Tucker973Nefertitties
      3/22/14 10:19am

      I've noticed a bunch of Michelle's posts have some of the better ones on the site lately. Great addition to the staff!

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    TaylorMichelle Dean
    3/22/14 10:19am

    Where does one find this database of old papers?

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      Michelle DeanTaylor
      3/22/14 10:20am

      Your local library can help you out on that one. There are actually several kicking around. Far superior to the microfiche era, I tell you what.

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      Timothy BurkeTaylor
      3/22/14 11:38am

      Google has a lot of them archived, but there are specific databases that digitize old newspapers that we use for research. I use this one a lot.

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    Flm3454Michelle Dean
    3/22/14 6:59pm

    What an interesting article. I have to be honest, in the last few months before this plane went missing I began to read up about airplane crashes and disappearances. And then MH 370 happened, and I'm fascinated by the whole thing. I am by no means an aviation expert but I feel like I've had a few theories that have evolved drastically over the past 2 months. This situation really keeps you on your toes, and as I am not personally connected with the circumstances, I can't imagine how the family and friends must feel right now. What's really interesting, as echoed in a Vice article from the beginning of the search, is that people take for granted how "surveyed" we are today, with satellites, GPS, the internet, and cell phones. The consensus seems to be that it is a bad thing: a modern Big Brother that spies on us from above no matter where we are. And so with MH 370 I believe much of our frustration lies in how a plane, in 2014, can go missing without a real, solid clue to its location.

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      ClioMichelle Dean
      3/22/14 3:41pm

      I continue hearing the idea of uncertainty being the reason why the Flight 370 story has such long legs. But I really don't care. I'm not heartless, I don't think. But bad things happen without reason. I've learned to accept that.

      I think this take on the story, of recalling a time when information wasn't so handy, is oddly refreshing. Death was much more real when we didn't have so many ways of ignoring it. It read like a serenade, "the Earth will take you, and eat you, and your identity will be subsumed into the unknown." I don't know. It was just really relaxing.

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        cheerful_exgirlfriendMichelle Dean
        3/22/14 12:26pm

        Bill Bryson's One Summer -America, 1927 fleshes out the Nungesser and Coli tale and many more, even more striking to me was how totally behind we were aviation-wise when compared to the rest of the world. France and many other European cities had numerous public airports while we had zero.

        The book covers more than just airplanes, btw.

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          UngratefulDeadMichelle Dean
          3/22/14 1:45pm

          Very interesting piece, I love morbid historical anecdotes. I have a whole book of "unusual crimes" compiled by cops in the 1930s.

          I imagine the tragedy of earlier eras was that lighter, slower planes made surviving the actual crashes themselves more possible but the absence of radar made ever being found by searchers so unlikely.

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            TaternutsAnonMichelle Dean
            3/22/14 11:35am

            Stories like this illustrate the lie behind the Kinja experiment. If the writers write interesting and compelling articles, that are well researched, there isn't much for the commenters to add.

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              Mount_PrionMichelle Dean
              3/22/14 8:33pm

              Honorable mention: When Wonder Woman forgets where she parked.

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                SUSPECT__IS__HATLESSMount_Prion
                3/23/14 4:09am

                Now that you mention it, how does she even fly that thing if she can't see the controls? Most humans have enough trouble not slamming their totally visible cars into other totally visible cars.

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